Castle Point Council website tells us the council’s toilets are open from 9am until 7pm between Easter and September 30.

It also says the automatic toilets are open 24 hours a day.

There is a separate page about the “new high-quality toilets” at Richmond Hall, Benfleet, and Lubbins Park, Canvey, which were installed in 1997.

The council is forever telling us through its public relations system how great it is at reaching targets and at being, if not the best, then close to the best at almost everything it attempts.

Well, I have a few problems with some of these claims.

First, its website is not as easy to navigate through as its position in the league tables and the accuracy is sometimes questionable, exemplified by the following: The loos at Tarpots and Richmond Hall are not staying open until 7pm at the moment.

About 4.45pm seems to be the favourite latest closing time. Having said that, I have to concede the toilets are kept pretty clean when open, but that’s of little consequence if you are caught short because they close earlier than advertised.

Surely the shopkeepers at Tarpots and Benfleet still expect custom after 4.45pm.

Furthermore, it’s difficult to understand how automatic toilets can be open 24/7 when they now seem to have been removed, gone, disappeared!

The so-called high-quality toilets installed at Richmond Hall have been vandalised for a fourth time.

While deploring vandalism and praising the basic concept of these loos, the council has made it very easy for the toilets to be damaged by its choice of a very brittle material for the external cladding. It is a flaw in the design which is proving to be an expensive on-going drain on resources.

Councillor Brian Wilson
Labour, St Mary’s Ward
Shorefields